Wasp Blower • Hacker News Board

Re: Wasp Blower

#101

Post by jihadjihad » Sat, Oct 25, 2025, 10:21 AM UTC

argomo wrote: post #97

jihadjihad wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fine with your garden variety paper wasp, along with its European counterpart [0] that is all over the US and closely resembles a yellow jacket, but the latter tucks its legs in flight while the former doesn’t, which makes distinguishing the two relatively easy. Paper wasps generally aren’t aggressive unless you’re in their business, and they’re easy to deal with if you have to. Yellow jackets are a different sto…

What's your method for eliminating underground nests?

A tablespoon or two of carbaryl dust dumped right at the main entrance hole (at night, of course, and use a red headlamp light etc., nothing bright) will put the hurt on. They carry the dust inside the nest and get it all over the place, but it doesn’t alarm them like spray cans of insecticide do.

Wait a couple days to see activity die down, might need another application. Eventually the queen will die which will kill the colony. Any stragglers can be handled with spray cans.

There are some YouTube videos [0] that show the idea of using carbaryl dust that might be helpful. An insecticide dust applicator would be the perfect thing to use, but all I did was slowly march up to the hole and dump the dust from a cup right onto it.

0: https://youtu.be/DOr0_1DqsTs?si=fl0kpVLWaGfmMeSy

Re: Wasp Blower

#102

Post by LtdJorge » Sat, Oct 25, 2025, 11:59 AM UTC

IncreasePosts wrote: post #69

LtdJorge wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yeah. You have to be careful. Here, houses are made of brick, and almost no one has a shed, YMMV.

Sorry, but no one has a shed? Where do you cook your meth? Please don't tell me the house.

I know you’re joking, but where I live in Spain it’s very rare, we normally store tools in the basement garage. In the north, Galicia and Asturias, it’s much more frequent to have wooden sheds in the countryside.

Re: Wasp Blower

#103

Post by hocuspocus » Sat, Oct 25, 2025, 2:23 PM UTC

cycomanic wrote: post #95

hocuspocus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European hornets are protected in several European countries. The low population is also a reason we have too many wasps. That said even though they're not particularly aggressive, I don't know anyone who would just leave a nest on their property.

My parents had a hornets nest at different spots on the house several times in a row (they typically don't nest in the same place). Nobody was ever stung (and I've been visiting with my two small kids). Hornets are actually fascinating to watch, they would fly into the winter garden/glass house (where we typically had breakfast in summer), catch the insects who were stuck and flying along the windows/glass ceiling an…

German wasps are invasive and afaik only Germany protects them under the same category as all other species of wasps, which is funny because Germany has a huge overpopulation of yellowjackets. You can still remove a nest on your property if you have a reasonable cause for doing so.